Using satellite data to find areas of thermal updraft to fly gliders is just one of the innovative ideas developed over the week-long 'camp' to help bring Earth observation to the everyday user. In its second year, the App Camp saw 20 developers from 16 countries convene at ESA's ESRIN centre in Frascati, Italy.

Submit your ideas to this year's competition on how Earth observation data can benefit business and society. Entries will be accepted in all nine categories starting tomorrow. The Copernicus Masters - previously known as the GMES Masters - rewards the best ideas for services, business cases and applications based on satellite Earth observation data.

A team of scientists has won a berth on a tiny satellite to explore one of NASA's most important frontiers in climate studies: the imbalance in Earth's energy budget and the extent to which fast-changing phenomena, like clouds, contribute to that imbalance.